


Cellar

by Timekpr



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-07
Updated: 2012-10-07
Packaged: 2017-11-15 19:50:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/531069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timekpr/pseuds/Timekpr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trying to wrap my brain around Ianto, prior to writing some scenes in another fic. Somehow he reached out and wrapped his brain around me.</p><p>"Everything he's done since Canary Wharf has been for Lisa. Was for Lisa, time to start thinking of her as past."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cellar

**Author's Note:**

> post-Cyberwoman

Meticulous. Each crease in the freshly pressed suit precise. Three attempts to get the laces tied evenly on the freshly shined shoes before he gives up and changes out the laces for a crisp new pair. Tie straighted without recourse to any mirror, so many days of identical preparations and now he just knows when its all correct.  
  
Years of practice. Even as a teen when he'd see the BBC interviewing some neighbor of a murder (and its always some old lady in a cheap flowered dress saying, "Oh, he was such a nice quiet chap, never any bother, used to stop by for a cuppa on Tuesday now and again, its such a shock to us all when the police came round and started digging bones out of the flowerbeds....) he knew, somehow, that could be him.  
  
Now he's seen that same dull shock on Owen's face, heard that same denial in Toshiko's voice. Gwen too stunned by it all or perhaps she hadn't made the mistake of Owen and Tosh in thinking she knew him. Only Jack sees the truth, only Jack who never quite trusts anyone, Jack who keeps so many secrets of his own that its not a surprise that Ianto was keeping a monster in the very cellar of Torchwood.  
  
He still has a job. It's a welcome routine to put on his mask and leave for the Hub. That's what doesn't make sense. He expected that when (he knew it was when and not if, they're just too smart) they found Lisa he'd be taking up residence next to the last person who betrayed Torchwood. It was a comfort and every Monday morning without fail he's polished that drawer just to be ready when it happened. His personal retirement home next to Suzie.  
  
Now its a new day and he's just a bit lost. Everything he's done since Canary Wharf has been for Lisa. Was for Lisa, time to start thinking of her as past. Ianto just isn't sure what mask is appropriate wear for "the man who nearly got us all killed keeping a cyberman in the cellar showing up to work again". There aren't any rules for this. It does occur to him briefly that the fact he's thinking of himself in third person half the time is probably a sign of some sort of deep emotional disturbance. But given that its Ianto's job (my job, he corrects himself immediately) to always know what to do when one of the team gets off balance no one else is bloody likely to recognize that he's playing poker with a Tarot deck these days.  
  
But Jack knows he's off, and doesn't seem to care.  
  
It makes Ianto wonder what Jack's got in the cellar.


End file.
